Day and night navigation on Loughrigg and a wander up Caudale Moor

21.5.14
Walking with; Graham

  I've mentioned before that Loughrigg Fell is particularly well suited to practicing navigation on. It attains no great height, but it is easily accessible and covered in lumps, bumps, gullies, tarns, streams and wiggly contours of the most perplexing type. So ideal really as I make my last push towards ML readiness! The sun had bought out the masses and Ambleside (where I stayed at the excellent YHA) was heaving with people, but once I got out of the car and wandered down the back road to Under Loughrigg it wasn't long before the masses melted away and I found myself climbing up onto the fell in contemplative silence. I spent a couple of hours around Lanty Scar and Fox Hill. I was using the 1:50000 scale which I still find tricker for fine nav, but it was a reasonably successful outing enhanced by the bluebells, which I think have been better this year than in a long while. There were views to Grasmere, Rydal Water and Windermere and the cotton wool Cumulus drifted by as I sat drinking it all in. After a pleasant evening sitting in the sun outside the hostel, I wandered down to Rothay Park to meet Graham http://www.beardedmountainman.com/ who despite a full schedule of D of E work had been kind enough to spend a good few nights wandering round the fells with me in order to try and prepare me for assessment. It was a beautiful, clear night and another couple of hours passed as we navigated our way around the fell under a spectacularly starry sky.
   The next morning that spectacular sky had been buried under heavy, bruised clouds and as I chugged up "The Struggle"(which I still think is one of the best named roads in the world...."Where do you live?", "No 4 The Struggle....") the rain began to fall. Mine was the only car in the carpark opposite "The Kirkstone Pass Inn" and the inn itself soon disappeared in the clag below me as I ascended to Raven Crag. In the poor visibility I worked my way from point to point before reaching the Mark Atkinson monument. The monument remembers a landlord of the inn who died in 1930 and wished to be remembered in site of his life's work. His son is also remembered on a plaque. From there I attained the two tops named as Caudale Moor and Stony Cove Pike and then made my way down in deteriorating conditions back to the car. This was my last outing before my final ML assessment and the conditions were ideal for practicing navigation, now it is crunch time, but I feel as well prepared as I can be!

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A week's worth of walks

14-21.4.14
Walking with; Ruthy, Paul and Stephen

  In the week that the Peak District National Park was celebrating it's 63rd birthday, it seemed appropriate to stay local and enjoy the beautiful weather in the oldest National Park in the UK and the second most visited in the world (behind Mt Fuji apparently). It was the kind of week where no great expeditions were planned but pleasant walks showing the diversity of the area were undertaken and enjoyed.
   The moorland around "The Cat and Fiddle" is an excellent expanse for practicing the art of fine navigation. I traced the route of groughs, located dew ponds and avoided disused mine workings. I skirted quarries, startled Grouse and ended up at Three Shires Head, all whilst basking in the rays of a glorious Spring sun. In the Dark Peak, Lantern Pike was a pleasant jaunt from Hayfield and Bleaklow proved to be a grim and forboding place both by day and by night. Following a navigation challenge undertaken by the Edale Mountain Rescue team led me to be convinced that they could locate a needle in a haystack, I didn't fare badly, but returned the next day to review the area under a somewhat dark and gloomy sky. Mountain Hares were everywhere, their coats changing from Arctic white to a duller brown more associated with the dun coloured moors of the Snake Pass. The Roaches too looked great under sunny skies even if the wind was whipping around the tops. The Bank Holiday weekend had crowds everywhere so I retreated to my urban hideaway to sit it out with little more than a brief jaunt to Marbury Country Park to admire the bluebells and the Great Crested Grebes.
   I suspect I may decide to wander further afield this week, but if I don't it's satisfying to appreciate the fact I have so much here on my doorstep!

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Nostalgic wanderings in 1066 country

23/24.8.13
Walking with; Nobody

A trip down South to the place that I will always think of as home, the village of Crowhurst where I was bought up, went to school, where my Mum is buried and my Dad still lives, a place where I will always feel happy. Crowhurst is situated in the heart of 1066 country and the magnificent ancient Yew in the churchyard of St George's is rumoured to have been mentioned in the chronicles of Norman as part of a gruesome tale of retribution when the Reeve of the village was hung for not revealing the whereabouts of local treasure. The village is also home to Forewood, an RSPB nature reserve and Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). The woods are noted for their sandstone ghylls, the profusion of Bluebells in early Spring and their ancient bell pits used in a primitive form of mining.
Woodland walking is very different from walking in the hills. It has a spooky enclosedness about it, it can be dark and a little eerie, but it still has, in a very different way, a real sense of being in the wild. There are birds in amongst the canopy, mysterious rustlings in the fallen leaves and undergrowth and brambles snatching at you as you negotiate the muddy ditches where the coppicers tractors have passed. I followed the trail from the top entrance of the wood leading down towards the pond where my Mum's memorial bench is. Wrens hopped in and out of the scrub and a Jay shrieked noisily as I passed. The pond, flanked by Flag Irises seemed much smaller than I remembered and, sadly, there was no wildlife to be seen. Leaving the woods I crossed the fields, the rolling Sussex countryside that defines this part of England and, in fact, so much of the rural landscape of the Home Counties. I made my way through the drizzle to St George's Church, passing the ruined manor house built by Walter de Scotney in 1250. The original church was built in 1412 and the tower remains in place til today. I sheltered from the rain in the porch before making my way through the village lanes and back towards my family home. This was not an adventure, an expedition or a challenge, more a nostalgic, gentle ramble down memory lane.
I'd been waiting to post this until I had taken the photos off my memory card, but I've just checked it and it is utterly empty......tech fail.....so there you go!

Hardknott (to enjoy the day) in the Lake District sunshine!

8.6.13
Walking with; Nobody

The Lake District in sunshine is one of those rare, almost mythical events, like finding a teetotal prop forward or a South African vegetarian.......However days like yesterday are the ones that remind you that the English Lakes are on par with anywhere in the world. I'd initially planned for my visit to coincide with the Boot Beer Festival, but that particular event, coupled with a week of decent weather, had Eskdale pretty full, so I fell back on an old favourite, Turner Hall Farm. My last visit there was in the days where drinking The Newfield Inn  http://www.newfieldinn.co.uk/, a solid, traditional Lakeland boozer, out of tequila seemed the natural end to a day in the hills. Life is a little more sedate nowadays but after a refreshing dip in the river The Newfield is still a very decent place to spend a couple of restorative hours!
I left the campsite early, keen to avoid the worst of the heat, and meandered towards Dunnerdale Forest taking in the quite stunning bluebells. It was pleasingly cool in the Beech woodland and I was hoping for shade all the way to the foot of Harter Fell. It wasn't to be......the upper reaches of the forested area on the map were decimated, the ugly scars of recent logging work denuding the slopes of shade. I've seen a lot written in the blogosphere about the detrimental effect on the landscape of wind farms, but, too my mind, forestry on this brutal, industrial level is an even greater and more pervasive problem. The climb up to Maiden Castle was steep and sweaty, but the views from the top of Harter Fell were well worth it. To the North the Roman fort at Hardknott and the Scafell massif, to the East to Seathwaite Tarn and the Old Man of Coniston, to the South, the forest from whence I came and to the West, away to the coast and the brooding hulk of Sellafield. I picked my way down the rocky path, the odd Swallow dipping and swerving through the air above me and then wandered along the vally before a short, very sharp hike took me up to the fort for lunch. Sandwich in hand, gently melting, I let my imagination run riot and drifted gently back into the days of Hadrian and his cohorts.
Thirst stung me into action. I followed the trail towards "The Woolpack" http://www.woolpack.co.uk I saw a pair of Yellowhammers and was harassed  by a Buzzard who I suspect must have had a nest nearby, but I eventually reached my goal where a beer festival was very evidently in place and where I bumped into a former colleague from Castleton YHA now ensconced in the Eskdale hostel. A pint or two in the sun could easily have turned into more but I took my leave and headed out via Low Birker (looked to be newly renovated but unoccupied) up to Tarn Crags. I'd planned to head East after Green Crag, but somehow overshot it (possibly related to the last pint of Mucky Duck?) and ended up on a very hot, marshy plod via the wonderfully named Great Worm Crag and Wormshell How before regaining the shade of the woodland! I ended up following the contoured path above the valley before rounding Wallowbarrow Crag and dropping down into the valley for more bluebells, more swallows and the very good Pork Belly and a pint of Catnap combo provided by The Newfield Inn!
A long, tiring but very rewarding day out, and apologies for the terrible pun in the title, couldn't resist! 

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Another weekly wander or two..........

21/23.5.13
Walking with; Nobody

I love having the Peak District on my doorstep, it means when time is short or inclination is in lowish supply I can still get out and experience some of the finest countryside Britain has to offer without it really feeling like an effort....and so it was last week, two very different Peak District rambles, neither more than half an hour from home.
Tuesday morning, feeling a bit flat, I decided a gentle amble might lift the mood and headed to the undemanding territory of the Middlewood Way. A previous walk on this multi-use track, which follows the route of an old rail line from Marple to Macclesfield, had proved fruitful in terms of the profusion and variety of wild flowers http://www.comewalkwithmeuk.co.uk/2012/06/stroll-on-middlewood-way.html and this one was equally rewarding. Bluebells were starting to decorate the fringes of the path, as well as Forget-me-nots, Cow Parsley and Cranesbill. Bumble bees were dancing around the flowers and Orange Tip and Peacock butterflies were making the most of the patches of dappled sunlight cutting through the canopy. After twenty minutes or so I left the path and ascended to the Macclesfield Canal. I have a longing for the life of a narrow boat man and every time I see the immaculate barges, wood smoke curling from the chimneys and kettle on the hob I'm filled with an overwhelming urge to travel.....Dreaming, I pressed on deeper into the Cheshire countryside, there were male Pheasants in the fields, resplendent amongst the sheep and cows and a Kestrel hovered over head as I continued on to Lyme Park where I had lunch and watched a flock of Jackdaws tormenting one another. The Bluebells were out in force in Elmerhurst Wood and on emerging from the trees I regained the Ladybrook Valley Interest Trail before pottering back to my car refreshed in mind, body and spirit!
A couple of days later and I decided I was in the mood for some map work and a few more demanding miles. I parked at the Arnfield reservoir, on the outskirts of Tintwistle, and headed out across the Grouse moors towards Tintwistle Knarr. There were plenty of Grouse about, not to mention Curlews, and later on I saw a Peregrine, but very few people and progress was pretty quick up on to the edges above the chain of Longdendale reservoirs. As I left the edge the clouds which had been sitting on Bleaklow dropped and the short cross moor path to Lad's Leap was done in poor visibility. After a restorative cuppa I followed Hollins Clough North before making the Trig Point on Rakes Moss and continuing on to Chew Reservoir which I had only previously reached from Dove Stones http://www.comewalkwithmeuk.co.uk/2012/08/black-hill-via-holme-clough.html. Leaving the reservoir to the Canada Geese I followed the cliff top path above Chew Brook before striking off across Ormes Moor and eventually (after a few relocations) managed to make my way to the top of Ogden Clough. At this stage the sun came out!! Buoyed by the novelty factor I decided to lunch at Higher Swineshaw reservoir and after half an hour with the sun on my face ended up contouring round Lees Hill before enjoying more Bluebells in the Hollingworth Nature Reserve and eventually making it back to my starting point at Arnfield.
These two walks were very different in terms of scope, landscape and effort required, but I feel very lucky to have them both on my doorstep!

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Lantern Pike from Hayfield

28.4.12
Walking with; Nobody

I was due to be heading out on my Silver Navigation course but it was unfortunately cancelled at the last minute leaving me stranded in New Mills with full kit. The sun was, none-the-less, shining and I felt it was too good a chance to miss and not to get out and about in the hills. I parked at the head of the Sett Valley trail and started off down the track which follows the route of the old branch line between Hayfield and New Mills and was lined with bluebells, cow parsley, forget-me-nots and celandines. It is a busy route, probably due to its flatness and relatively short length, and there were plenty of bikes, pedestrians and horses for company.
After about a mile The Pennine Bridleway leaves the trail and heads sharply up the side of the valley towards Lantern Pike. The path starts off quite roughly before it becomes smoother but continues to head steeply up. A short scramble along a dry stone wall bought me onto the very windy summit with spectacular 360 degree views taking in seven counties not to mention the vast brooding bulk of the Kinder Plateau. It was a pretty spectacular spot and I had it to myself as I hunkered down in a sheltered spot amongst the rough heather for a bit of lunch. I followed the track on downhill towards the junction of five paths at Blackshaw Farm. Continuing forward on the Pennine Bridleway I followed the track as far as Matley Moor before setting off across the boggy land putting up a Lapwing en route to the farmland on the other side. My loop then led me back past Knarrs and along a narrow path above the wooded valley of Hey Brows where I saw a beautiful pair of Wheatears sitting on a stone wall. I carried on past a couple of pig sties full of wallowing sows and piglets and then headed back to the Blackshaw Farm junction. I decided to follow the path home via the hamlet of Little Hayfield with its beautiful converted mill sitting on the edge of the Sett before heading along the cinder path into Hayfield itself and a welcome pint of Cumberland Ale at "The Kinder Lodge".
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